My Soul To Take
by WinryRockbell6390
Summary: Kagome lives a curious existence. For the past eighty years, she's been trapped within a mirror. When her prison finds itself in the possession of the Japanese Ambassador's son, a tragic destiny of forbidden love unfolds. A fairy tale.
1. Prologue

_Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha, it's characters, or anything associated to the franchise. The copyrigth strictly goes to VIZ, Rumiko Takahashi, and their associates_.

**Prologue**

A foreboding of dread was cast over the small English town. A town that was much too silent for its population of two thousand. It was a harsh winter that had taken its toll on the entire country, much to the dismay of the monarchy that oversaw its subjects.

Illness had fallen upon the isle of Britain, probably the worst in years. Several doctors within the country—and very prominent number of those sailing into the country—were kept busy through most of the snowy months of October to February.

It was during this time that one of the Nobleman's four daughters had fallen ill to influenza. Although medicine had advanced well past it had been in the late 17th century, still none could predict the number of victims the dreaded flu would take each and every winter. Even in this year of 1782, many still perished because of the sickness.

A man heavily covered to protect him from the winter walked up to the Nobleman's home and was readily rushed inside. A woman with eyes of the purest blue and a graceful age to her face took the man's coat and ushered him to the upstairs bedroom to the right. What had shocked the doctor wasn't the strong stench of sickness that clung to the girl in the bedroom, but rather her youthful features.

At the tenderly woman age of fifteen, a heart-shaped face was haloed by midnight black tresses that clung to her brow. Opening her eyes, she revealed her mother's eyes, albeit sickly, still stunning in their youthfulness.

"Is there anything you can do, Doctor Naraku?" the Nobleman's wife pleaded as the doctor examined his patient. "Kagome is to be wed in the spring, to a boy in the northwest town. She must be well for—"

"You have a talent for chatter, my lady," Naraku chuckled absentmindedly as he pulled his stethoscope from Kagome's heaving chest. "Unfortunately, there is not much I can do at this stage. If she is to recover, it is of her own will." A diagnosis no parent wished to hear.

Kagome blinked lazily at her mother, her own blue eyes not being able to focus fully on the woman. "Don't worry, mother. I'll be well before you know it. I would hate to shame father by dying before my marriage."

The Nobleman pulled Naraku to the side, a desperate look in his eyes. "Please doctor. She is my youngest daughter with so much left to live. Surely you can do something—"

"There is only one thing I can do. But I'm afraid such a method cannot work unless…"

"Unless?" The Nobleman's face failed to hide the glimmer of hope for his daughter.

"…unless she passes," Naraku said grimly, "There are certain holy enchantments that have been passed down in my family that—"

"Don't speak such blasphemy!" The Nobleman hissed. "Such powers are against the teachings of Christ! What kind of man would—"

"Kagome?" The attention of the two men turned back to the gravely ill girl and her mother fretting over her. "Kagome? Darling, answer me! Kagome!" The Nobleman's wife fell to her knees beside the bed, her elegant dress falling about her as she wept.

A wave of grievance fell upon the room. The girl had breathed her last.

Doctor Naraku had turned to the Nobleman once more, "there isn't much time, sir. I _can_ save your daughter."

The Nobleman looked hollowly at his wife and the pale face of their newly deceased child. A chill crept up the man's spine and grasped at his lungs, threatening to suffocate him. Only when he reached up to rub his temple did he realize he was crying. Turning to the doctor, his dark eyes rang empty in his desperation. "Do what you can."

Naraku nodded in haste before approaching the girl's bedside and gently coaxing the Nobleman's wife from the child's side and into a nearby chair. Once the woman was settled, the doctor set to work on the girl, cleaning her brow and pulling a few items from his tote bag.

The Nobleman and his wife watched on in wonder as Naraku began whispering in a language foreign and barbaric to their ears. His lips moved at incredible speeds uttering words only recognizable to those native of the lands the words resided from. Kagome's body began to glow lightly as the mutterings got louder, startling the couple within the room.

As Naraku hissed the last of the enchantment, Kagome's body faded with the soft light leaving an empty bed. "Kagome?" The Nobleman spoke up after a moment or two, "Where is my daughter?"

A wary doctor gave the Nobleman a knowing smirk, "she lives, sir."

"Darling!" The Nobleman turned to his wife, her gaze locked on the opposite wall. Following her line of sight, his eyes widened. There, in the decorative wall mirror that hung in the room was Kagome, live and well…looking out at them from the other side of the mirror. The Nobleman turned in confused rage to question the doctor, knowing better than to have trusted a man who did not follow the church.

But when he turned back towards the empty bed, Naraku was gone.

* * *

**A/N**: I would LOVE to thank the amazing Rikayu for her beautiful drawings that inspired this story-

http:/ .net/ fs25/f/2009/239/6/a/ SessKag_Mirror_by_Rikayu_

http:/ .com/ art/ SessKag-Helpless-176982377?q= gallery%3Arikayu-chan%2F4592406&qo=2

(remember to remove spaces)


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Eighty years in this prison.

Eighty years of watching the world pass her by.

Eighty years of watching her family grow old and live life without her influence.

Eighty years of watching her sisters and brother discover love and give birth to families she couldn't have.

Eighty years of hopeless wishes and painful deaths.

Eighty years of hell.

Kagome leaned against one of the stone walls of the cell she had been forced to inhabit. Her hand found one of the yellow ribbon draperies that hung throughout the circular room. The entire space was cluttered by the fabric, right down to the simple yet elegant yellow dress she wore. Gray and yellow. How she loathed those colors. Staring at them for years had long since lost her interest in what once had been her favorite color.

An all too familiar sigh escaped the girl as she glanced at the only translucent wall within the space. It was her window to the outside world, but now it only held a reminder of the life she couldn't have.

When she had been first confined to the small space dimension of the mirror, her parents had been angry but grateful. Why, she didn't know. She couldn't recall anything that happened the few hours before her confinement, but she would never forget her father's rage. Every time he looked at her from then on had been a look of barely contained rage and sorrow. It slowly ate away at her to think of why her father gave her such a look. After a few years, she blocked it out entirely.

At least her mother was happy. No, happy wasn't the word. Cheerful described the woman's behavior that lasted ten years. Cheeriness that Kagome was positive hid the unimaginable sorrow that her mother felt every time she thought of her youngest daughter's fate.

On Kagome's twentieth birthday, her family realized she didn't age within the mirror. That brought about a whole new wave of rage from her father and fake cheerfulness from her mother. She would live on as they died. And died they did, while Kagome lived on as a fifteen-year-old doll within a mirror world.

After her parents' death, Kagome hid herself. She refused to watch her sisters and brother share the same fate as her parents, and since she couldn't leave them she blocked them out. So many years passed that her siblings and their children forgot about her._It is better this way_, Kagome forced herself to believe. _No one can get hurt more that what is necessary to feel about death_.

That had been around thirty years ago. Now Kagome lay in waiting for her mirror to be shipped to a country across the sea. Her great nephew had been left the mirror and, in need of money, sold it overseas to a diplomat in France.

_Well, I've always wanted to travel_, Kagome thought humorlessly as the mirror's contents shifted a bit due to the rocking of the ship it was being carried on. _Hopefully my nephew's no fool and sold the mirror to someone worthy of keeping it safe._

Distant commands and orders alerted Kagome that the ship had docked and was being unloaded. The various sounds and shifting of the mirror soothed Kagome as she drifted into a restful slumber. After all, what else did she have to look forward to in this cage? Sleep was her only true reprieve.

"Place it over there." The two weary shippers placed the crate down gently on the floor, opened it and set up the contents before dragging their feet out and back into the busy of the city to finish their jobs.

A man, standing at six-feet-five-inches with hip-length silver hair, examined the gift that had been delivered. It was an old gothic-style mirror that stood a good five feet from its base to the top of the glass. Very weighted, very decorative, and very expensive.

"This is what that old cow was praising?" The man scowled at his son's ungrateful tone as he entered the family study.

"Totosai means well, son," the man huffed. "Such a gift from him means a lot. Plus, he wanted a gift befitting the year you're celebrating."

The man's son gave a rather ungentlemanly snort, his unusual golden eyes gleaming in irritation. "I'm turning twenty, father, not sixty. Such an old fashioned gift should be reserved for an old fashioned age."

"Sesshomaru!" The man growled, "surely your mother has taught you better. Such thinking must be _kept_ to one's thoughts!"

Sesshomaru bowed to his father, the tail of his navy blue suit swaying with the motion, "forgive me. I forgot my place."

"Surely you have," his father reprimanded, "Even more so, you have yet to fulfill the one request I ask of you—"

"I see no point in it," Sesshomaru said as he walked over to the mirror, examining its structure. An expressionless mask covered his face as he ran a hand along the intricate frame. "An arrangement like that does not benefit me, despite your constant appraisal."

"An appraisal that must be kept," his father hissed, "no son of mine shall lose sight of tradition while we are in this Western world!"

A look of boredom adorned Sesshomaru's face as he leaned gracefully against the frame of the mirror, his waist-length silver locks cascading around him almost femininely. "Are we not upholders of western tradition of our homelands? I see no difference when you speak of conformity to these lands' customs when it is these very customs we have tried to instill upon our own people."

"Indifference brings about the birth of fools, Sesshomaru." The elder of the two sighed warily. "We must not to lose sight of who we are in these changing times."

"And yet, by moving here, we study these barbarians so as to instill the very change upon our people that you wish to protect ourselves from," Sesshomaru countered blandly. "Such thinking cannot be viewed as anything short of hypocrisy."

"Just as such crass speaking is nothing short of dishonor." Golden eyes narrowed on its junior, demanding the younger submit to the elder. And submit he did, for now.

"Forgive me, father," Sesshomaru pushed himself away from the mirror. "I forget my place."

"See to it you remember it in the future," Sesshomaru's father warned. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to check on your brother. I have a feeling he lost himself in the sea of suitors that had come for you."

"Turn them away," Sesshomaru said, "tell InuYasha he is free to pick from them, if that is what he wishes. As I have stated before, I have no intent to marry one of these western women."

His father gave him one last look before turning to leave, muttering, "You will reap what you sow, son."

Kagome stirred as a pair of voices became more prominent in her conscious mind. Male voices, to be precise. Now fully awake, Kagome approached the window of the mirror to peer out into the time-based world. Her breath caught at the sight of the two men in her view. Obviously father and son, but easily mistaken for brothers, the two had to be the most beautiful men to walk the continent.

The elder of the two, Kagome figured based off the slight laugh lines around his eyes whenever he talked, carried himself like someone with such exuberant power that he had no idea what to do with it all. Silver tresses that fell to his hip and gold eyes that were warm like the morning sun, Kagome had never seen a man like him before. Surely, this man couldn't be any younger than thirty, but he could easily pass off as one just entering their knowing years. But what caught her attention more so than the father, was the son.

As the son stepped away from the mirror, she used what she knew of her prison to guess he stood at about six-feet-two-inches, barely shorter than his elder. Almond shaped eyes incased amber irises framed by long dark lashes he had to have inherited from his mother, for it was a trait his father lacked. Feminine lips and an aristocratic nose stood out on a painstakingly obvious male face, framed by silver hair gifted from his father that fell to mid-thigh.

Kagome watched the calm but very tense conversation between the two men, an awestruck look on her face the entire time. Once the father left, the son turned to the mirror and stopped. Kagome's eyes widened in realization: he'd seen her.

* * *

**A/N:** This will probably be the last fast update, sadly. It IS the holidays, after all. Then after that comes final projects for school. I will try to push out two more chapters before Thanksgiving is over, then most updates will have to wait until the Christmas holiday. But I always love feedback! I'd like to know what my readers liked, hated, or think I need to improve on. ^^;


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

He had to have taken ill, that was the only explanation for what stood staring back at him. He was delirious with fever, for there surely couldn't be a maiden within the glass of the old mirror. Mirrors showed a reflection of the world, not photographs of women. Surely not moving, breathing photographs, either.

The woman in the mirror moved slightly, bringing Sesshomaru out of his self-centered thoughts. Slowly she crept backwards until he realized her figure was fading from his view. Grasping the edges of the frame, Sesshomaru stared down at the woman, "wait." That one word alarmed her, it seemed. She did not wish to be discovered? "Your name."

Her wide blue eyes looked at him with apprehension. Something flashed within the oceanic pools, so quickly foreshadowed by her curiosity he had almost missed it. "The year?"

Sesshomaru was caught off guard by her counter question, but he didn't let it show. Placid mask in place, his grip tightening the only hint that he was baffled by the woman before him. "Eighteen hundred and sixty two. Your name."

She took a step back, seemingly in shock, and her body vanishing even more from his view. "So long ago…" Looking down, the woman walked back up to the glass, so close to the surface now that it seemed he could touch her. Blue eyes shot up to him, determination boiling in their depths. "Kagome Higurashi."

His eyes widened a fraction at the sound of her name. Japanese decent just like his family. This revelation only brought more questions. "How did you come about this mirror, Lady Higurashi?"

His voice would be her undoing, Kagome thought as she stepped away from the window of her prison and sought refuge within. Such a deep burr had to unravel the foundation of any woman's defenses, and with the way he carried himself Kagome speculated he used it to his advantage. Frequently. Why, of all people, did her mirror have to fall into his possession?

"Miss Higurashi? I am…merely curious as to your situation." Kagome hugged herself as he spoke to an empty glass. He was persistent, she would give him that much. Although, it would do her no good if he were to press into more personal matters that even she were unaware of. So she did the only thing she knew how: she closed herself off.

"If you were simply curious, dear sir, you would show more courtesy to a lady you have only just met." She hoped her biting retort would throw him off. It was not to be.

"Then forgive my rudeness, ma'am, but I was taken in by such a youth who preferred a rather unorthodox means of travel." Damn, he was a witty one. Were all Frenchmen like this, or was her fortune so low that she came across the only one within the country?

Taking a step forward so as her face barely came into his view, Kagome cocked her head to the side. "All would be forgiven if you would so graciously return the formality I have shown you."

Understanding her request as a reasonable one, Sesshomaru backed away from the mirror by a few feet and bowed deeply at the waist. He could have sword he heard her breath catch when his hair fell over his shoulders. He cringed inwardly at the thought of another swooning female. "I am called Sesshomaru Taisho, ma'am."

"So you do have manners," Kagome giggled as she approached the surface of the glass. "And here I was thinking curiosity ruled your actions over civility."

Straightening himself, his eyes dancing in mirth, he looked at the woman before him. "I assure you that is not the case." Stepping back up to the mirror, he brushed his hair back over his shoulder. "But I will admit my curiosity at a sight such as you."

Kagome sat down in front of the glass, her yellow dress pooling around her. A small smile played on her lips, "such as me? So quick to drop formalities, I see."

"Just as you are to avoid the topic centering on yourself," Sesshomaru smirked as he knelt before the glass. "I credit you for your talent of wit, Miss Higurashi, but I must know how you came about a mirror for a shelter. Otherwise I am to inform my father and master of this estate."

Sensing the threat hidden beneath the statement, Kagome sighed. The last thing she wanted was someone else involved in her story. Even she was unsure of some things she was positive others would like full knowledge of. So with resignation, Kagome confided in the first person outside her familial line.

"I was born in the year seven hundred and sixteen. On the winter of my fifteenth year I fell ill, and was seen to by my family. The next thing I remember is waking in the place I currently reside in." Pulling her knees to her chest—albeit covered by her plush dress—she hugged her legs to herself. "I cannot recall how I came to be here, or who cursed me to this place. All I know is that while within this cell I do not age or hunger. It's a troublesome burden, really, for as long as I reside within this place I will be frozen at fifteen while everyone around me grows old."

Sesshomaru listened intently as Kagome expressed her tale. Honestly, she seemed to be as confused about her past as he was. That little tidbit intrigued him more than he thought it should have. "Have you ever sought a means of escape?"

That threw Kagome's mind. Escape? Why, in all these years, had the thought never crossed her mind? Maybe because she had become so complacent in her dwelling that thought of being thrust into the living world once more terrified her. Or maybe, being the scatterbrain she had often been teased of in childhood, she just never realized she _could_ attempt escape. Yeah, that was probably it.

The look of shock on the woman's face told Sesshomaru everything he needed to know. She had not sought a way out. Was she content being within her prison? Maybe he had misunderstood her feelings behind her story? Scrutinizing the woman behind the glass, Sesshomaru saw a small gleam of longing within her eyes. Then it hit him full force: this was a woman who never truly got to live her life. Worst of all, she had known nothing else than life in the mirror. She had probably lost the feeling of what was like to be in a world where time ruled. To feel the sun on her face or to enjoy a cup of tea…such luxuries had eluded her for years.

For the first time in his life, Sesshomaru felt genuine sympathy for a person. Small things he, and everyone else of this world, had taken advantage of were the very things this woman had gone so long without. Things no being should go without. Things he felt this slip of a woman should not have been deprived of so early in her life.

Kagome was pulled from her inner thoughts as Sesshomaru stood up. Looking up at him, she watched as he turned and headed towards the door. Thrusting her hands against the glass, Kagome called out to him, "wait! Where are you going?"

Fighting back a sigh, Sesshomaru turned towards her. "I would suggest you stay hidden, Miss Higurashi. I can't guarantee that others within this estate will keep your secret as I will. They may find your situation most…questionable, and may take drastic measures."

Realizing the severity of his words, Kagome pulled herself away from the glass and out of sight. "I understand, but where are you going?" She repeated her question.

"To seek information," he said promptly, "it seems there are gaps in your memory, and whatever you cannot remember may be the clue to why you are held within the mirror. Surely, you would like answers, yes?" At the woman's silence, Sesshomaru turned from the mirror and opened the door, "good. I'll be back soon."

Kagome leaned against the wall of her cell and gave a slightly echoed sigh. Sesshomaru seemed like a trustworthy man, at least she hoped. She couldn't rely on her judgment of people too much, since her only encounter with people were those within her own bloodline. But there was something about the man, Sesshomaru, that told her she could put her faith in him. Maybe because he was so straightforward?

_Or maybe it's his inhumanly good looks…_

Blinking, Kagome shook the thought from her mind. The last thing she needed was to start swooning over a man who held possession of her mirror. Who knew what he had in mind to do with the object, and her for that matter. It was better just to lay low and see what he had in mind. Yes, that's what she would do.

Lie in wait…and see.

* * *

**A/N:** This will probably be the last update before the Christmas holiday. I will TRY (I repeat, TRY) to push one more out before school starts back up for me, but I cannot make any promises. But the updates WILL resume come Christmas break (after Dec. 16th). Until then, feedback is appreciated and loved! Happy belated Thanksgiving! :D


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